I have been reading ‘’The Wild Lives of Africa’’ by Juliette Huxley and I have come across these weird facts about animals and plants. Did I tell you that apart from writing I am a certified Botanist? Now you know. Anyway, these are what amazed me:
1. The actual mating of Elephants lasts only about 10 seconds.
2. The wood of a tambootie tree (Spirostachys africana) is extremely poisonous when fresh that even the smoke of its burning will taint the food it cooks and cause blindness to man and beast.
3. The lioness bears her cubs dead. She mourns over them for three days; then the lion comes and breathes life into them.
4. When the lion is sick, he searches the forest for a monkey which he eats to be cured.
5. The lioness….brings forth young but once in her lifetime, and then a single cub; she cannot possibly conceive again since she loses her womb at the same time as she drops her young.
6. The thin legs of an Ostrich can eviscerate (disembowel) a hyena or a man or another ostrich when they fight out their rivalries.
7. The male giraffes are homosexual. During mating season, they gather together, gently rubbing head or neck on one another’s head, or along the neck and body; this “necking” arouses a male to the extent that it will stand behind and mount another or several males.
8. At a certain age in their growth, crocodiles collect and swallow a quantity of stones as ballast. This helps them in submerging and gives them the right centre of gravity for walking on the bottom of the river.